


i breathed you in, you filled my lungs

by aruallz



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2019-11-23 16:45:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18154433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aruallz/pseuds/aruallz
Summary: There's a hot guy in the elevator with Nico and Jason every time they go to the design department of the paper.Too bad he doesn't speak English.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> this is SO self-indulgent pls be patient with me

Most days, Jason simply couldn’t believe that he ever thought working for a paper would be boring.

When he was not behind his desk typing away on a computer, he was either a) helping Leo with any crazy plan that was keeping him busy that week, b) having really weirdly specific arguments with Will and Annabeth at the cafeteria, or c) pining after the hot stranger who took the elevator with him and Nico in the early afternoon.

Three months after leaving his father’s bank for a career in journalism, Jason had grown used to his new routine. He’d wake up around seven, leave his apartment at a quarter to eight, get to work at a quarter past with more than enough time for a shared coffee with his friends. From half past eight and onwards, it was usually pretty quiet in the office. Lunch breaks were either spent alone while drowning in a pile of paperwork, or with Leo and Piper in the staff room.

Then, things got interesting.

The day Jason and Nico had met him, they had been on their way to the Department of Design for the first time. Even though she was one of his best friends, Reyna still very obviously prioritized her role as Jason’s boss. Despite his protests, she had assigned him and Nico to what they had come to call ‘mule duty’. In short, Nico and Jason carried boxes of files to the Department of Design at least once every two days or so. It had started with a technical problem, which apparently could not be fixed in any other practical and efficient way. As a result, Jason had found himself waiting in front of the metallic doors of the main building’s elevator on a Monday afternoon in January, his exhausted expression matching Nico’s almost perfectly. His arms strained under the weight of a large cardboard box. He shifted it slightly to the right. His childhood friend kept huffing in frustration next to him.

“Fucking shit elevator,” Nico muttered. “What’s taking so long?”

Jason didn’t reply, his mind still focused on what he could be having for dinner that night. A loud _ding_ announced the opening of the doors. Jason only had about half a second to long for a large plate of sushi, when all of a sudden, he saw him.

He was wearing black jeans and a white shirt rolled up to his elbows, revealing swirls of black and blue ink on his dark complexion. His tongue was poking out between his teeth as he listened to whoever was on the other end of his phone call, chuckling softly at the person’s words. He gave Nico and Jason a polite nod as they walked in.

And just as Jason thought he could not _possibly_ get any more attractive, the guy had started speaking in fluent Spanish.

The _Mural_ was a bilingual journal; it was definitely not uncommon to hear vivid conversations around the halls, often even switching back and forth between English _and_ Spanish. The Department of Design, however, had had many interns coming directly from Latin America recently. Between this knowledge and the fact that he had never heard Hot Stranger speak English, well— Jason just assumed that he _didn’t._

If Nico had noticed that Jason was suddenly a _lot_ more enthusiastic about paying visits to the Department, he didn’t comment on it. A good 90% of the time, the stranger didn’t disappoint, already inside the elevator before it passed by their first floor. By the time March came around, Jason already knew exactly how the elevator rides went. He’d step inside with Nico, make some comment about how hot the guy was, Nico would tell him to get his shit together, Jason would step out on the third floor, and Nico and the guy would continue to the fourth.

Simple enough.

 

“If I have to hear about this hot elevator dude one more time, I think I’m going to tackle you to the ground and tape your mouth shut,” Leo sighed, sinking into the worn-out bean bag of the staff room. Piper took a bite of her green apple.

“Why don’t you, like, _talk_ to him? You know? Using _words_ ,” she said as she chewed. Leo snickered.

“Words that can then form a _sentence_.”

Jason rolled his eyes. Before he could answer, Nico appeared at the doorframe.

“Sentences might be a bit of a stretch. He’s useless when it comes to romance, you guys know that already.”

“He wasn’t useless when he asked _me_ out,” Piper countered, making Leo fall into a fit of laughter. Jason cringed.

“Please don’t mention that day ever again.”

“Anyway,” Nico helpfully interrupted, “Jason _does_ use his words. In English. In the middle of the elevator, when the guy is standing right next to the both of us.”

“I love it when you talk about me like I’m not even here. Really makes a guy feel loved.”

Piper turned wide eyes to Jason. “You do _what?_ ”

Jason shrugged. “He doesn’t speak English. I never say anything rude, though, I’m not an asshole. Just— cute things,” he muttered. Leo exaggerated an _awwnn._ The corners of Piper’s mouth went up.

 _“_ Nico, what does he say exactly?”

“Mostly shit along the lines of _‘holy fuck he looks so fucking good oh my god’_. Maybe a _‘he’s so well-dressed’_ if he’s feeling particularly soft.”

Jason swore to himself that he would smack Nico di Angelo right in his tiny, sarcastic goblin face one day.

“That’s— Jason, that’s actually kind of sweet,” Piper said, putting a hand over her chest.

“And also kind of pathetic,” Leo finished. Piper nodded. Of course her heartfelt reaction had been too good to be true. He sighed.

“I know, I know, it’s just— if he doesn’t even speak English, how do you even want me to do more than swoon once every two days? I don’t speak a word of Spanish,” he reasoned.

“You could learn. I could teach you,” Leo said.

“I don’t have time for that, I can barely keep my potted plants alive.”

Piper bit her lip as she thought. “Leave him a note?”

“I don’t know where he works, what his name is, and again, he _doesn’t speak English.”_

Nico had kept strangely quiet throughout the rest of the exchange. Right as Jason was about to confront him, Reyna turned a corner at the end of the hallway. In one second, everyone was up on their feet and rushing to their laptops, the fear of their boss uniting them faster than any hot elevator stranger ever could.

 

April opened on a rainy Wednesday. Leo had called in sick, and Jason still couldn’t figure out whether that was a blessing or a curse. His absence on April Fools was way too suspicious for Jason to work without feeling like he could be attacked at any second, so when lunch break was done and someone knocked on his door, his first reaction was to jump in his chair and reach for the pepper spray he left in his drawer for Valdez-related emergencies.

“New files for Design,” Nico announced, only poking his head through the door. He frowned at the sight of Jason behind his desk. “Is that pepper spray?”

Jason sighed in relief. “I thought you were Leo.”

“Oh,” Nico immediately nodded. “Okay. Understandable.”

There was a pause during which they just stared at each other. Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Well? You’re gonna help me or not?”

 

The doors to the elevator open with a _ding_ before either of them can press the button. Jason only has a second to process Hot Elevator Stranger almost running out the door before he bumps right into him, sending his box of documents flying while they tumble to the ground. Jason grunts.

“Ow.”

A chuckle comes from besides his head. Hot Stranger smells like lavender and something else, something sweet— _chocolate? cinnamon?_

“Sorry,” Jason says, and immediately regrets opening his damn mouth. The guy looks up at him, mouth slightly open, eyebrows furrowed. His eyes are even brighter up close. “I, uh, I should have moved.”

The stranger shakes his head, his lips curl into a curious smile.

“Oh no, it’s on me.”

Jason is pretty sure his heart has stopped beating entirely.

Hot Stranger only smiles wider.

“I shouldn’t have rushed.”

Jason can only stare as the guy picks up his files for him impossibly fast, piles them back inside the box, and disappears down the hall to the cafeteria.

Nico has the _audacity_ to laugh.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the comments!! yall r gold

Two days and several stress-eaten cookies after the disaster, Jason still refuses to take the elevator with Nico to the higher floors.

“Dude, come _on_ ,” his friend sighs, putting the gigantic cardboard box down by his feet slightly more forcefully than necessary. “It’s not that big of a deal!”

Jason barely looks up from his computer, his eyes fixed on the endless blinking of a cursor on an empty page— _writer’s haunting_ , as his sister calls it. Frank had sent him a series of documents to proofread in the previous few days, but he has barely gotten through two of those alive. His friend was kind enough not to comment.

Nico is not that friend.

“Listen, you embarrassed yourself in front of your little crush! That’s life! Do you think I never did dumb shit in front of Leo before we got together?”

“It’s Leo you’re talking about. Dumb shit is his forte.”

“Yeah, well, you literally know nothing about that design department guy. He might be a dumb shit enthusiast too.”

Despite himself, Jason snorts. Nico cracks a smile in victory.

“Come on,” he says again, pushing the second cardboard box closer to Jason with his foot. “It’s already past three, he won’t even be there.”

Jason manages to add eight words to the document, highlights two, before deleting everything. His leg bounces up and down. He closes his laptop.

“Fine.”

 

Something that has to be known about Jason Grace is his tendency to disconnect completely when a situation becomes overwhelming.

He knows this is a result of his ADHD— dissociating had been a major part of his teenage years, making ordinary and quick tasks last _hours_ — but it had started happening less and less over the years. Sure, the rest of his symptoms remain, but he likes to think that he has lived with it long enough to handle himself easily.

All that crap is out the window as soon as those eyes land on him.

They’re crinkled in a smile that day, joy radiating off of him almost nauseatingly. Jason suddenly realizes he had never seen the guy on Casual Fridays— he had always been wearing formal shirts. Those are replaced with a red logo t-shirt, hugging his biceps and revealing even more tattoos across his skin. His curls dip a little more than usual across his forehead, like his hair is still damp from a shower.

Jason moves automatically, barely realizing Nico’s box is digging into his back to push him forward before the elevator doors close behind them.

His father’s bank had had huge elevators, often big enough for a dozen workers to leave room to spare all around them. The _Mural_ , however, makes Jason feel trapped between the nearest wall and his buffer-zone Nico di Angelo. He stares down at a lost point in the reflection of Nico’s skinny legs and focuses on the cheesy pop song that has been stuck in his head since he woke up.

After eons— _eleven seconds_ — the elevator dings. The robotic voice Leo has nicknamed Marge speaks up from somewhere above their heads.

_“Third floor — tercer piso.”_

Jason’s chest feels light with relief. He moves forward, but as soon as the doors open, Nico walks out in front of him.

Jason freezes.

Looks at his box.

_Fourth floor._

Understanding rushes through him as he looks at his friend, exiting backwards and proudly displaying the _Third floor_ sticker on the front of the cardboard.

He scowls.

Nico winks.

The doors close.

_Please don’t say anything. Please don’t say—_

“That’s one hell of a friend you’ve got there.”

Jason glances at him before he can think better of it. His smile is intoxicating. He definitely smells like lavender and chocolate.

Jason swallows and chuckles.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

The guy stands up a little straighter and brushes wrinkles out of his t-shirt. Jason clears his throat, for lack of a better thing to do.

“I’m Percy.”

Jason smiles back without ever consciously thinking of doing it.

“Jason. Nice to meet you.”

Percy’s smile widens, the same way it did when they ran into each other.

“Funny, that’s usually what you say _before_ complimenting someone’s butt.”

Jason wants the ground to swallow him whole and never let him out again.

Percy’s laugh is the sweetest sound he has ever heard.

“Do you always take such joy in embarrassing other people to death?” Jason manages, trying not to focus on the way his cheeks are burning. Percy shrugs, and it shouldn’t make him more attractive, but it does. Jason’s eyes linger greedily on the line of his shoulders.

“Nah,” he starts, and it takes Jason a second to remember what they had been talking about. “Just people I find really cute.”

It takes Jason a whole hour to stop blushing, even when he returns to his own floor. There's a scribble of a phone number in the pocket of his jacket.

He can’t even be mad at Nico for ambushing him.

 

 

The following Tuesday, Jason’s own personal idea of hell comes true.

He arrives at work to find Annabeth Chase already inside his tiny office, arms crossed, frowning at him like she’s calculating every single bad action of his twenty-four years of life.

He drops his jacket on the nearest chair.

“It was Leo’s idea.”

Annabeth doesn’t miss a beat.

“Leo’s never been to the design department, I’m not dumb enough to let him anywhere near my job.”

Jason watches as she moves across the room, fixing a crooked picture of Thalia on his wall. He blinks in confusion.

“Is something wrong in the department?”

Annabeth’s pause is so long that Jason starts thinking she didn’t hear him.

“Word is you’ve met one of my interns.”

Jason raises an eyebrow. “Percy’s your intern?”

“The best I’ve had since Rachel left.”

She redirects her attention to him.

“He’s been going on and on about you.”

Jason tries and immediately fails to contain a goofy smile.

“He has? Wait, really _?_ ”

Annabeth’s glare softens, but only by a smidge. Jason has his share of Chase-glare experiences, though— he can tell she’s having fun with this.

“Really. Grover and the Stolls are losing their minds up there, no one can get him to shut up. I’ve heard about _how blue your eyes are_ at least seven times this morning.”

Jason will deny it later, but he _giggles_ at her words. There is a pause as he continues to look at her, and his smile slowly fades.

“Wait, why are you so mad? Is he okay?”

Annabeth’s eyes dance, amused.

“Oh, he’s fine.”

She takes a step forward.

“But _you_ won’t be if you ruin my best employee.”

Jason nods so vividly he's scared he'll cramp his neck.

“Yep. Absolutely.”

“He’s the nicest guy on that entire floor. Except for maybe Grover,” she admits. “But I’m serious. Percy brings me donuts every week and he painted an _oil portrait_ for Hazel’s birthday. If you make him sad, the entire department is gonna hunt you down.”

Jason nods again, but his amusement bleeds through the previous nervousness. Annabeth stares him down for another second for good measure, before bumping his shoulder with her own and heading out the door.

“Oh, and _please_ text him already. He hasn’t let his phone out of his sight all day.”

Jason barely waits for the door to shut before grabbing his phone, his grin feeling wonderfully too big for his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments make me cha cha slide in philosophy class


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fluff fluff fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really had no idea how to end this chapter so its kind of left open but also thats kind of how one shots work so yeah idk

“I’ll be honest, I thought you were a bit of a dick at first.”

Jason laughs, and it’s the lightest he’s felt in months. He uncrosses his legs and crosses them again the other way, giving Percy a raised eyebrow when he doesn’t say more.

“Yeah?”

Percy smirks.

“Yeah.”

It’s a warm day for early spring, so Jason had decided to improvise a lunch date at the nearest park. Instead of replying to his text, Percy had shown up to his office door with a grin and a towel, _so our butts don’t get soaked in the grass, Jay._ The nickname had sent his heart into overdrive, thumping its way to their current spot under an oak tree.

“How come?”

His crush-who-finds-him-really-cute-and-maybe-likes-him-back brushes dark curls back from his face, but the breeze immediately brings them back.

“The assuming I didn’t speak English thing. It’s happened a bunch of times, really, but people usually don’t pay me compliments the way you did.”

Jason feels guilt spreading across his chest. “Fuck, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think—”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not,” Jason insisted. “I’m sorry.”

Percy spends a few seconds just looking at him, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. There’s a wonder in his eyes that Jason can’t exactly place, but it makes him feel warm all over. When Percy speaks, his voice is rich with sincerity.

“Thank you.”

Jason can’t think of anything smart to say, so he stabs his fork into his salad and fills his mouth with leaves to avoid any more stupid remarks. Percy unwraps his cheeseburger, and gestures towards Jason in an offering way.

“Oh, no thanks,” Jason gives a tight smile. “I can’t have meat and dairy.”

Percy’s eyes glance down at the tiny gold pendant at the hollow of Jason’s throat. A Star of David peeks at him from behind the collar of his shirt.

“Fuck, yeah that’s right, I’m so sorry—”

Jason finds himself laughing.

“We just keep apologizing to each other, huh?”

Percy’s eyes are gleaming. “If Nico could see us now, he would be having the time of his life.”

Jason opens his mouth to reply.

Frowns.

“How do you know his name?”

Percy blinks, almost convincingly.

“Well, you told me.”

“No I didn’t.”

Birds are chirping somewhere to their right, taking over the pause in their conversation.

“Okay, you didn’t, I’m just _really_ good at guessing names.”

Jason tries to keep a serious face, but Percy’s wiggling eyebrows get to him.

“I knew it, I fucking _knew it!_ He’s been messing with me since day one!”

Percy’s tattooed fingers find Jason’s bare ones, intertwining them.

“Okay,” he laughs, “ _listen.”_

Jason is laughing too, although a bit breathlessly, glancing between their hands and Percy’s wonderful wonderful wonderful face. If he squints, he can almost imagine Percy is struggling to get his words out too.

“The second time the two of you took the elevator with me, back in January, was the first time you said anything to Nico about me.”

Despite himself, Jason feels his cheeks growing red. Percy’s smile widens.

“When you got out on the third floor, I couldn’t help it, I just started laughing. I thought you were adorable. Nico understood what had happened, and on the walk to the department, he told me a lot about you.”

“I’m sure he did,” Jason tries to look annoyed, but barely manages it. Percy gives his hand a squeeze, and Jason’s heart threatens to jump out of his chest.

“A lot of _great_ stuff. More than enough to make me crush on you from afar.”

Jason blinks.

“What?”

“I said, more than enough to—”

“No, I heard you, it’s just— I’m— _what?_ _You_ _too?_ Why did you never _say anything?_ Do you know how much time I could have spent with you instead of glancing at your butt in the elevator every two days?”

No matter how many times Jason hears him laugh, he doesn’t think it will ever stop making his stomach flutter like he’s rushing down a roller coaster.

“I couldn’t let you off that easy, right? It would have been way less fun.”

When Percy’s palm settles on the side of his neck and his thumb strokes his cheek, Jason feels ready to spontaneously combust.

“Besides, we have time now, right?”

Jason is saved from having to think of a witty reply when Percy’s lips shut him up.

 

 

Over the following weeks, Jason’s little routine changes slightly— for the _infinitely_ better. Percy’s apartment is closer to work, so he finds himself sleeping over most times they watch movies and order takeout at his place. Other perks include meeting his cat Blackjack, not going to sleep craving cuddles, and finding out he is completely and irrevocably a mama’s boy. Jason would be too, if he had a mom like Sally Jackson.

As their relationship progresses, he notices little things changing in Percy’s routine too— how pork seems to have disappeared from his fridge and diet in general, the way he insists on cleaning out the two largest drawers of his clothes to make space for Jason’s stuff _that way you don’t have to keep crossing the entire city every fucking day_ , how he purposely leaves Jason’s favorite hoodies to steal lying around exactly where Jason will find them.

The most touching of all, though, is Shabbat. The first time he gets there on a late Friday afternoon and finds Percy decorating the living room, his— _their_ dinner table set the way Jason had shown him, back in his own apartment, Jason tears up for a good half hour. When he tells Percy no one should be allowed to be this hot _and_ loving, he gets tackled into a hug so tight his thoughts turn into a mush of _Percy Percy Percy_.

 

 

Reyna magically fixes the file transportation problem a few days after Jason and Percy have their first date.

When Jason confronts her about it, she plays dumb.

Nico doesn’t.

“Yeah, she was in on it too. Who do you think Percy was speaking Spanish to, on the phone? They’re both from San Juan, they met when Reyna was working there last summer,” he says, like it’s nothing at all, dumping his tiny body into Jason’s unofficial cafeteria beanbag. Jason settles for the window ledge.

“Of course she was. Anyone else?”

Nico starts counting on his fingers, and Jason can’t contain his exasperated laughter.

“Annabeth was the first to hear about Percy’s crush on you, so she talked to Piper to make sure we all took the elevator at the same time. Remember those times she “ran” into us right before and started talking about some nonsense?” he makes air quotes around _ran_. “Yeah, it was because Percy was running late. Annabeth told her through texts. Setting them up on dates and making them get together was the worst collective decision our group ever made.”

“Jesus, Nico, I’m—”

“Hazel found it incredibly endearing that you would compliment Percy the way you did, so she was the one who talked to Percy the most about you. She wanted to make sure he didn’t give up on meeting you sometime. Grover was also really excited about the whole ordeal, and he asked Leo to send him regular updates.”

“ _Leo_ , that—”

“Remember the day Percy knocked you over? It was April Fools and he was running outside, right? Leo called in sick and you all thought he was planning something, but he just had a really bad flu. Piper texted Connor and Travis when you and me were about to go upstairs, and they told Percy Leo was about to go spray-paint his car. He rushed to go to the garage through the cafeteria exit, but really, they just wanted him to run into you. Guess he seized the opportunity to talk to you in English while he was at it.”

“Oh my _god—_ I—”

Jason pauses.

“I was going to say I can’t believe you all would do this, but I can. I definitely can.”

Nico grins, taking a sip of his coffee.

“I’m gonna miss it. Fucking with you.”

Jason holds out his own cup.

“Cheers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading! all my work is unbeta'd so please let me know if theres typos or tense changes! comments are the absolute best!! if you want to find me on tumblr my url is punksudaca and i post lots of writing there as well!


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